land, full of great fishes:" for "the land" to which the fish are brought, is "the end of the world," or, rather, the beginning of their heavenly glory: for saith St. Matthew, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind : Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the Angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."" Such, my Brethren, are the doctrines of our BLessei LORD in these passages of His life; and they are not without many and most important applications, though I have been necessarily occupied so long in the explanation, that the practical exhortation must be short. One solemn word of warning, however, I must not withhold. : In the net, by GoD's goodness, you are already: but at present you are subject to the snares of the Devil; and if you strive not against them you will be led astray. You may be led into sin, and the Church may have to weep over your doom, instead of glorying in your crown; or you may be led into error, and may be tempted to break away from the wholesome restraint, and from the body of the Church, and then, again, you are in the deep. And of all the snares of the Devil, liberty, or, as it ought to be called, license, is the most enticing, and destroys most souls. Freewill-one's own choice-liberty of faith-religious freedom-unrestrained service-the sovereignty of conscience the right of private judgment-these are the specious names which he gives to proud and sinful struggles against GoD and the truth, and by which he entices so many to break from the net of the 1 Matt. xiii. 47-50. 1 Gospel. "Your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good from evil;" was the first fatal temptation-and it has not lost its force. At present you are in a Church, of which may be said, that the fishermen have cause for "mending their nets;" for our visible unity in ourselves, and with the whole body, is not undisturbed: but it is less disturbed than in any other church in Christendom, however any other church may boast; especially it is far less disturbed than in and by the church of Rome, which makes the loudest professions of the principle and visible sign of unity. Thank GOD, then, for your great privilege, and love your own Church, and cling to it with all your heart. But cling to it in obedience and holiness, as well as in love, or still you may be among the multitude called, and not among the few chosen among those who are cast away as worthless, and not among those who are gathered into glory. May we all have grace to forsake everything else, and to follow JESUS, and then shall we be received into His Kingdom, where is no more division, and no more sin; where the net shall not break, nor the ship be in danger of sinking;-where, through the Divine mercy, we shall need no more to say, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O LORD!" but where we shall be admitted even to the visible presence of our LORD where "we shall be like HIM, (wonderful words!) for we shall see HIM as He is." May GOD HE 2 grant this, through the sanctification of the HOLY GHOST, for JESUS CHRIST's sake; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Genesis iii. 5. G. A. P. 1 John iii. 2. SERMON XVII. THE CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS. Ninth Sunday after Trinity. 1 CORINTHIANS X. 1-6.1 MOREOVER, BRETHREN, I WOULD NOT THAT YE SHOULD BE IGNORANT, HOW THAT ALL OUR FATHERS WERE UNDER THE CLOUD, AND ALL PASSED THROUGH THE SEA; AND WERE ALL BAPTIZED UNTO MOSES IN THE CLOUD AND IN THE SEA; AND DID ALL EAT THE SAME SPIRITUAL MEAT; AND DID ALL DRINK THE SAME SPIRITUAL DRINK: FOR THEY DRANK OF THAT SPIRITUAL ROCK THAT FOLLOWED THEM : AND THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST. BUT WITH MANY OF THEM GOD WAS NOT WELL PLEASED: FOR THEY WERE OVERTHROWN NOW THESE THINGS WERE OUR IN THE WILDERNESS. THIS epistle of St. Paul bears this address, "Unto the Church of GOD which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in CHRIST JESUS, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus CHRIST OUR LORD, both theirs and ours." Now this description includes the Church of England, and that particular congregation to which we belong. We are, therefore, bound to consider the words of the text as intended by the Holy Apostle, or rather by the HOLY SPIRIT who inspired him, for our special instruction and admonition; and, this being the case, they contain The Epistle for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity. a message from GOD addressed to us, which it is at the peril of our souls to neglect. And what, in few words, is that message? It is this,-To consider the dealings of God with His chosen people the Israelites as a type of His dealings with us. Now the Israelites were His elect people, yet they were all, for their unbelief and disobedience, overthrown in the wilderness, except two families; and the warning runs thus-If we are unbelieving and disobedient, we, who are His elect people now, shall likewise fail of entering into that rest which remaineth for the people of GOD. May GOD give us grace to read the warning and profit by it! We see in the text a very close parallel drawn between GOD's ancient Church in the wilderness and His present Church in the world; meaning, of course, by His Church those who are united together in one Body, by partaking in the Sacraments of Baptism and the LORD's Supper-for these alone are true members of His Church; and as the wilderness was a type of the world, and the Land of Canaan, towards which the Israelites journeyed, a type of Heaven, so was Moses their leader a type of CHRIST: for as we are baptized into CHRIST, so were the Israelites baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. The text says, They were all baptized unto Moses, so all Christians are baptized into CHRIST. None is a Christian who is not so baptized; none has any claim upon the blessings of the Christian covenant who has not been made a member of CHRIST by Baptism. Let those look to it, then, who either make light of this ordinance themselves; or who, under any pretext, keep back their children from it. The Israelites, here introduced as types of Christians, were all baptized. Until they had passed through the We are his subjects, sea they could not be regarded as actually enrolled in the number of GOD's people. Until then, they were still in Egypt, within reach of Pharaoh and their taskmasters, types of Satan and his emissaries; but, having once passed the sea, they were God's people, chosen to possess the promised land-and so is it with us; before Baptism we are bond-servants of Satan, but by Baptism we are made members of CHRIST, children of GoD, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven: nor is there any other ordained means whereby we may become possessed of these high privileges. Until then, Satan's claims over us remain in full force. just as the children of Israel were born subjects of Pharaoh. GOD chose to vindicate His claim over them by bringing them through the sea, and baptizing them unto Moses; in order to teach us that we must submit to be delivered from the tyranny of Satan in His appointed way, and not devise means unauthorized by HIM for our deliverance. He had determined to deliver the Israelites out of the power of Pharaoh; of course, if He had so pleased, HE could have destroyed Pharaoh and his host by some other means, as He had already destroyed the first-born in the houses of the Egyptians; but He chose to destroy them in the sea; thus typifying to us His Holy Baptism, in which the authority of Satan over us is destroyed for ever, and we are registered among His true soldiers and servants; and, unless we wilfully forfeit this blessed privilege, we shall remain for ever in the number of His faithful and elect children; and thus, in His good time, inherit the kingdom which He prepared for us before the foundation of the world. But the Apostle pursues the parallel between the Israelitish and the Christian Church. They did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same |